one more thing, i shouldn't have a need to redish the wheel or anything correct?

It depends on how your chainline works out.

If, like 65er said, your new freewheel lines up with your middle chainring position, you're good-to-go.
If you find yourself moving axle spacers from one side to the other to make the freewheel line up with your chainring, you should redish your rear wheel afterward.

Listen to these words of wisdom. I shall however, add that the reason why you want to redish your wheel, is so that your rim still aligns with the brakepads. If you had a hub brake, such as a disc brake, a coaster brake, a drum brake or a rollerbrake, this step would be superfluous.

I disagree. The reason you redish a wheel is so that it remains centered in the frame. Otherwise, the front and rear wheels will not track in the same plane, and the bike will crab down the road. I does not matter what type of brakes you are using.

crab walk?

I thought it was called "dog walk" head goes everywhere, but never walking in a straight line and always slanted on an angle

Same thing, I think. If you were to ride behind a bike with an off-center rear wheel, the frame would be turned sideways, and you would see the front wheel offset from the rear. The front wheel would be turned slightly, and would be out-of-plane with the frame. As a result the rear wheel would be constantly turned relative the direction of motion, creating an unstable condition, which can be very dangerous at high speeds.

Perhaps you're right, but we're talking about a few mm of redishing, one way or the other. I had bikes with central threads un-aligned (but parallel) more than that. My personal experience is that it doesn't make any difference. Not with a few mm, in any case.

Was finally able to get to the lbs this weekend and picked up the freewheel, chain, tensioner, and suntour tool. (chain snapped on fri in the middle of rush hour traffic, couple scrapes, bruises, and a bent ego but alls well). The freewheel wasn't too hard to get off with a little muscle and the only things i forgot to get were a chain breaker (used to have one but misplaced it), lube, and a small bit of shifter cable. The guys there were nice enough to give me an old SRAM Force rear derailleur for the chain tensioner which I found out isn't a bad deal. Ill need the bit of shifter cable to secure the derailleur into the position I want to keep it in. The chain line actually ended up being pretty straight so we're good to go there as well.

Thanks again for all the help guys...was seriously invaluable to me.

[QUOTE=cave12man;10559774 Ill need the bit of shifter cable to secure the derailleur into the position I want to keep it in. [/QUOTE]
I really don't think you need to do that. Use the limit screws to adjust the chainline/position of the pulleys.

it's strange, i tried that and the high limiter works the way it should, but the low limiter screw won't hit anything even when extended all the way to the spokes. I have it screwed all the way in and it does nothing. Maybe I'm missing something but I played with it for a couple hours last night with no luck. Possibly the reason they gave it to me? Not sure but the only way I could think of to get around it was with that bit of cable.

That's because the derailleur is top-normal, and the spring pushes the cage outwards towards high gear and against the high limit screw. You don't really need the low limit screw to do this, however, the high limit screw needs to be long enough to push the derailleur cage inward sufficiently to align with your cog. You may need to go to the hardware store and find a longer screw of the same size to do this.

So disregard the low limiter and find a longer screw to use in place of the high limiter screw that is already there. Guess I'm headed to the hardware store after work! Thanks Tejano!

Any chance that the chain will fall into the spokes?

No, the derailleur cage return spring is constantly pushing the cage outward against the high limit stop screw. Since you have removed the shift lever and cable, there is nothing there to push the derailleur cage inward.

Awesome thanks again. I'd much rather buy a cheap screw than a whole cable I'm only going to use a piece of!